No Holds Barred
by two-headed fiesta
Summary: Honestly - who would appoint Rikku, of all people, not to get any sleep? They should have known better by now...


skuhskuhskuh. i love that new story feeling. so fresh. soooo clean. ... well. anyway. happy reading!

super thanks shout out to the most amazing person in the world: Kurai Hitokiri. best beta ever. love her! (:

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She couldn't sit still. If she did, all hell would break loose and she'd fall asleep _again_ on her watch. She'd already been reprimanded twice by Auron for it. (Lulu pitched in a bit at the end of the last one.) Rikku really, _really_ didn't like the sound of his scratchy voice yelling at her incompetence, as he so kindly put it. Then he thrust the responsibility of all their lives on her shoulders, only for a few hours, and how irresponsible she would become if blah blah blah yadda yadda. Spira, that man could ramble a hell storm for someone so typically brief. The girl rolled her eyes, shedding the man in question a parting glance as she gracefully rose to her feet, shorts crumbled.

An instinctive hand smoothed the soft creases, stretching out as she satisfactorily adjusted her apparel. Only a couple more hours before they'd set out again.

But really. Who would ever appoint Rikku to _not_ get her sleep? They did know what she looked and acted like without a good bit of shut-eye. The Al Bhed could walk away from the pilgrimage knowing how sleep deprivation was totally not her favorite, although this realization was more of a publicification of the already decided ideal. Rikku could sleep for days if the sun didn't interfere at Home, piercing through her thick curtains to dance across a tan, cuddly pillow hugging face. The girl smiled at the thought, remembering several mornings in which she'd awake with a curse in heart and cereal on the brain.

The girl shimmied beyond the confines of the group's sleeping circle, jostling the silky bags of both Wakka and Tidus, both snoring loudly at her heel as she quickly scooted, before finally coming to a hopeful halt at the outer circle comprising of Kimarhi's sitting figure, lids shut softly to indicate he was, in fact, sleeping. Spira, the whole Ronso tribe was weird. Why sleep sitting? That just **had** to be uncomfortable. Rikku nudged him with her foot, the furry blue man not budging more than a scattering of hairs. A smile instantly crept across Rikku's face.

There was just no way in a Shoopuf's dream that everything worked out so perfectly. Finally, after weeks of nonstop stuff, the girl could call home. She breathed an air of relief, hands working around her own hips to embrace herself in a hug.

She missed Cid's screaming, Brother's ridiculous mohawk, Keyakku's open smile, and Gippal's insistence of his dominance when it came to sparring. All her boys back home.

She couldn't keep them waiting so long, but did anyway. The going got rough and the blond got forgetful. Go figure. Rikku shuffled behind a crystalline-decorated tree, back resting against a Macalanian Oak. It was cool and sent a rush of flutters down her spine, goosepimples on her arms as she dialed the coordinates of Home in her minisphere, a broadcasting device similar to what Cid used in his "big secret airship" he tinkered with since Rikku left to _persuade_ Yuna. The Al Bhed leader had been developing the stupid thing for years beforehand, just in case they could find wavelengths to recover a ship. But damn if it didn't work perfectly, even hundreds of miles away. The less-than-sunshine-shiny face of Cid popped up, a glare already set when he saw his only daughter beaming back bathed in pale blue.

"Fayth, girl. Long time to talk, eh?" Cid decided on, shuffling as he held the tiny receiver to his face. "Your brothers are worried sick, idiots. They ain't doin' shit anymore, not that it's too big of a change, ya hear." The man grumbled something under his breath about uselessness, cluing a giggly Rikku in that nothing had changed in her short departure. Maybe that's what she missed most. How unchanged everyone stayed, regardless of struggle and loss.

"Pops, you know they can't do anything! They need a lady around to guide 'em!" Rikku responded, smiling as her father continued to glare at the ground, the look softening for his girl. "Are they around? I wanna talk to Keyakku! He'll never believe what I've done --"

"Like blatantly ignore the guidance of an elder?" A gruff voice offered, the shimmer of red visible in Rikku's vision. Immediately, a blush took over.

"Who the hell is that talkin' to my girl like that?" Cid demanded in a small voice as Rikku tried to slip the evidence of her slacking into her pocket without losing her father's reception.

"So I'm not allowed to speak to my family, now? Do you want me to ignore Yunie for the rest of the pilgrimage, so she can up and die thinking I hate her guts and stuff?" Normally, the girl would've made a quick excuse and listened as Auron lectured and lectured on, but tonight was different. She didn't want to take any of his crap. Not when all she wanted in the world was to see her brother's faces. Well, that and for Yunie to give up, but seriously - how unlikely was that?

Auron, also, was disheveled as she backtalked him, if only for a moment. "You are away from your duties. Do not blame this on me."

A sneer set on the girl's face, hands flying to her hips as her father barked another crude remark from her beltloop. "I'm not blaming zippo on anyone, buster! I'm tryna talk to my daddy. I haven't seen him in so long..." Rikku's hand slipped, almost in defeat, to her pocket as she lifted the sphere. "I know I'm away, but I'm not far if you found me so quick. I just wanted to say hello. You don't have to be so mean. I'm sorry."

This, too, set the samurai off guard. He parted lips, the noise echoing in the silence, before closing them. He honestly had no response prepared. Of the list of mock-inspirational quotes he always had prepared, in case of a conversation he would rather avoid at all costs, none quite fit the situation. "If you wanted to speak to them so direly, you should have brought it up."

"Yeah, like everyone would stop the world so I can call home. You'd be complaining that I, yet again, stopped the precious sacrifice march to Zanarkand. After what happened with Seymour and the proposal and stuff, I thought you'd understand. Cid would want to know if some Maester creep was trying to take his niece's hand from Ti--aye. Well. You know!" She maneuvered her hand to her waist, glaring at the man. "Be real, Gramps!" Cid muffled something at her hip. "Shut up, Pops! I got this one covered."

Auron snickered, formulating a response. Again, nadda. His stoic gaze fell to the girl's rumbling hip at the Al Bhed leader continued to mumble something about being spoke to so rashly. He could already tell that if he were to ... well, the two of them would be at the center of many violent arguments, if Spira was a different world and there was no Sin. "Find your own time to relay information. Do not put the party in jeopardy for the sake of one. That's Yuna's job."

"Auron!" Rikku stifled a laugh. Sometimes she hated how he could do that. Make her laugh when she was angry at him, and really trying to stay angry - not that it was too hard, when he went off on her for stupid things like this. She had hoped by now that she would have earned immunity or something. That lesson was quickly learned as a falsity. She smiled gently. "Just give me a minute or two, please? Then you can yell s'more if you wanna." He didn't budge from his spot, but beneath the thick collar, what she could not see in the poor lighting, was a grin of his own. Honest and pure, a smile he had rarely treated anyone to in the past ten years. The smile he reserved for Tidus as a child and Jecht's antics as a twenty-something. It was fleeting, small but all Auron's. Something he often used in her presence, but hid with the greatest of ease behind his encompassing collar. He mused that if she ever saw it, she may lose interest in his mysteriousness. "I'mma take that as a yes."

The girl plopped back down on the ground, pulling her father's shouting and miniaturized voice from her pocket. "Would you shut up for even a minute for once in your life, Pops? I love you, really, but I want to see Keyakku! Is he asleep yet?" Cid grumbled a response before brutally waking his youngest son with a shout. "Keyakku! Oh my god! You look so grown up!" The boy smiled at his older sister.

"You alright, sis?" He began in Al Bhed. "Everyone taking care of you there?"

"Hah! I don't need no one holding my hand, Keyakku. I'm all right on my own. In case you haven't heard, your sister is something of a savior on this end of the world. They couldn't _live_ without the Mighty Rikku to lead them to seamless victory..." Rikku prattled on for what seemed like an hour with the boy, recounting every adventure thus far and her uncensored feelings on one certain Maester, all the while Auron stood listening as the girl animatedly spoke with her family. It was then their age difference truly impacted him, as it did in bouts throughout the adventure. He always knew they would never be together, as much as she pushed the issue when they were far from anyone else and alone in an Inn room. There were so many factors not allowing Auron to act, conscious fraying the lines between right and wrong. As much as he wished he could hold her in the open, showing the others how careless he could truly be, his character stood rigid. A younger Auron may have acted on impulses and hormones, but at his age and state, he could not. They depended on him for strength and guidance. How valid is the advice of a man who can not contain himself around a girl half his age?

"--Look, Brother. I have to go. Tell Gippal I want to spar as soon as I see him again. Tell him I could shimmy shimmy him a good lump on that ego-inflated head of his, 'kay? Tell Pops I love him. Give him a big ol' hug! Ha ha! That'd scare him. And tell Keyakku to not give up. He'll fix that watcher soon. Tell him Big Sis likes the color yellow best. He'll get it. I'll be Home soon with Yunie in hand, swear!" Rikku smiled, biting on the corner of her bottom lip as Brother responded something quickly in Al Bhed.

"Yeah. You too." The girl shook her head as she turned off the sphere, pocketing it and standing. As jade met with brown, however, she stopped mid-movement. A blush crept across her cheeks. Had he been watching her the whole time?

"You... seem close."

"We have to. You never know when time's up, right?" The girl said immediately, regaining stride as she sauntered over to the samurai, taking on an impulse and wrapping her arms around the muscular torso standing rigidly affront her. "You never know when you won't be able to tell them you love them. You just gotta learn to never hold back. With everything wrong in this world, it's always nice to know you've got something right and tell it is as much as possible. I realized that, when I joined you guys. You just gotta let it out before you don't have the chance to anymore, no holds barred."

To this, Auron truly would never have a response. Even when it was officially too late. He would never have a formal reply Rikku could replay as assurance. Her mind, instead, trapped the stiff movement of Auron's sturdy arms as he responded physically with a return of the impromptu hidden hug, covered by brush in Macalania. These moments would offer the 'right' she looked for even after the wrong overcame her.

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End file.
